The Blessed Oochroma, Nature's perfect material.

Frankly, I would not Monokote the Shuttle, I would do a double layer of silkspan, with nitrate dope, to keep it light. Finish it off with three coats of colored butyrate, preferably Randolph, not Aerogloss, sanded between each coat. Stinson Green works for me, and covers well. White, well, they will be doping on twenty coats to get it nice and opaque.

Turbine APUs...my neighbor in the hangar next to mine was showing me a pair of APUs(actually smoke generators) that he got surplus, with (I belive) T-55 Solaris turbines in them. He wants to do a Bede 5j. We are going to fire one up sometime soon.

The shuttle, well, I guess I am preaching to the choir, yes, it was underfunded, and it was trying too hard to be all things to everyone. The rather fractured logic of the external tank and boosters being economical kind of throws me off, it's a miscalculation on such a grand scale...but I guess a comprimise better than no shuttle at all.

Again...what's an Orion? I have Top Clearance, you can tell me...